Ted Nugent Played "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Ted Nugent played "The Star-Spangled Banner" to open Camp Pendleton's Rockin' the Corps extravaganza that happened April 1.

Mike Wachna, who went to the event, had gotten tickets from his son-in-law (who got back from Iraq a few days after the event). Wachna told me, "They had over 50 buses taking us from the base to the beach. The bus driver told everyone to make sure they had their ticket, and one guy forgot his. The bus stopped, and he got out and had to walk back to the barracks...but when we got there, nobody was asking to see our tickets. They just let everyone in, handing us things like free phone cards from Verizon. I think anyone who was on the base that day would've been able to get into the concert."

Wachna told me that "Cedric the Entertainer was funny, and when Ja Rule had to spend 30 minutes fixing technical things, [Cedric] and Chris Rock kept us laughing. Because of that, though, Kiss [who performed last] was only able to play three songs. Cedric even said, 'You guys look like you have the entire Circuit City onstage.' "

As for the other bands, Wachna said, "Destiny's Child played almost an hour. They had the longest set. Godsmack was the only other band that did a long set like that. And I was bothered that they kept using the F-word. There were a lot of families there. I even saw infants, and the singer is yelling 'motherfucker' every minute."

One Camp Pendleton official near the merchandise booths was telling people that the show was being filmed to be shown both in theaters nationwide and also as a pay-per-view event, with money going to the troops.